Tim and Eric: Father and Son (from HBO's "Funny or Die Presents")

Like Gabe at Videogum, I haven't enjoyed the new HBO "Funny or Die Presents" series. At all. But this 16-minute (!) short film by Tim and Eric is amazing. It includes RC-controlled model helicopters, violence, creepy, angst, and pizza. I'm surprised and pleased that HBO is allowing this to be freely embedded. Also: If Mama Noodles is real, I am ordering a large pie tonight.

53 Responses to “Tim and Eric: Father and Son (from HBO's "Funny or Die Presents")”

God, I try like hell to like these guys, but my favorite bits of theirs continue to be when they’re not on screen. Mama Noodles at the end is funnier than the whole rest of the film, and Steve Brule is far more hilarious than the main characters of the show!

Real question: what exactly do you like about this? I wonder what kind of person enjoys this kind of humor- poking fun at real life awfulness and ugliness? Yes, there’s some exaggeration (nothing too imaginative, noodles on pizza?) but really? I think maybe it’s people who have grown up without any real ugliness in their lives who think this kind of awfulness is just pretend, just fun exaggeration, just a harmless, random, spoof on the trashy lives of people who aren’t really real to you.
I’m not naive or damaged or closed minded, I love truly imaginative, innovative comedians like Kids in the Hall or Monty Python, and I know Tim and Eric are popular and I’d like to like them, but really- what exactly about this do you like?

It’s offensive. Just like a lot of comedy these days. People eat it up because you’re making light of the situation. I on the other hand grew up with awesome parents and can’t relate to this sketch at all. But the fact that they’re making fun of real life problems and exaggerating the hell out of them and damn near pronouncing them improbably and farfetched is why it’s funny. But to each their own; especially when it comes to humor.

lighten up man. its supposed to be funny. not a sociological commentary. they are a comedy team. they can make fun of white trash all they want. it isn’t gonna change a thing. there will always be white trash whether they make jokes about it or not so we might as well laugh

Heh… my post definitely disappeared… I’ve played a show with David Liebe Hart who’s occasionally on “blah blah blah great job” and… at least he’s honest to gosh. I feel like these guys just have board meetings on how wacked out they can be in detail and then go about creating sleep inducing sketches like this. Sometimes they do really really really funny things though, so I can’t hate on them. There is one really funny line in this. One.

@johnhazard Coming from someone who also does not understand why people like Tim & Eric — my thought on it is that wanting to like their humor is like liking to be in love. One can like to be in love all they want but until they are actually in love they just won’t feel it.

You either get it or you don’t. We (and apparently most other folks) don’t.

Okay, I’m obviously in the minority here, because I actually found this skit touching. I laughed, and I felt awkward, and I felt warmth (and not from peeing myself–I checked). I know–weird, right? But maybe it’s because they mix in what I feel is a big ol’ life salad: equal parts ridiculousness, ugliness, and love. At least that’s what my life keeps bringing to the table. And like a dummy I keep diggin’ in!

Xeni, if you were clapping your hands and laughing kind of ecstatically during the songs, you’re not the only one.

Um . . . yeah . . . Tim and Eric normally are at best marginally funny, and can be VERY hit and miss. Like a previous poster said, I watch and TRY to see the “humor”, however thin, but 95% of the time it’s just . . . not there. And I’m not a humor snob; there are a lot of really weird, strange, unusual, black, even morbid things that can make me laugh. This ain’t one of ’em.

And in deference to johnhazard, you CAN find great humor in the awfulness and ugliness of everyday life. If you’re skilled. And nothing I’ve ever seen of Tim and Eric indicates skill. Just outrageousness that occasionally catches the viewer by surprise enough to elicit stunned chuckles.

As far as this film goes, the bit about the mother getting bitten by a bird hit a possible 3 on the funny scale. And that was it. Other than that, it was mostly just mean-spirited. So, in SUPPORT of johnhazard, I also ask – Xeni, exactly what made this piece “amazing”?

Tim and Eric don’t really strive for any kind of a punchline with their humor, which is what ruins it for people who are used to laughing at specifically the “THAT’S FUNNY” parts of things. They merely set up grotesque sight gags that you either really love, or really hate. Personally, I find their aesthetic hilarious. Call their brand of comedy garbage, but it takes real skill to consistently make the kind of hilarious trash they’ve been putting out for the last decade or so.

I think a good way to describe Tim and Eric is slow-burning amusement. Their shows get a lot better with repeat viewings, when you pick up on running gags like Cinco, the misspellings of Tom Peters’s name or his odd pronunciations of some words.

It all boils down to a fascinated question of “What could happen next?”

In all the web’s Tim and Eric threads, I see a lot of Monty Python and Kids in the Hall references. Both the negative and positive side. Easy to see how people would hate Tim and Eric, but thank god I don’t… for my health!

Speaking of which, Steve Brule fans should be on the lookout for his new show.

I admire that they even post the really crappy but fun early stuff they made.

I too had a horrible experience with the Puss Whip Bang Gang show. Not only at the FYF, but later at what was otherwise a great benefit comedy act (featuring Posehn and Odenkirk), I was once again subjected to that act. I say to myself that there some pure sadism. I applaud them for pulling it off. Reminds me of that Ween interview in Mondo 2000.

Look, these guys are the real deal, and they’re going to have people scratching their heads well into season Cinco Deux.

Far too many people are looking for the “LAFFS” in T&E. It’s the subtleties and points that are not overtly humourous that are the funniest. The little looks; awkwardly timed moves; the word selection. These all make it a more textured brand of funny.

I don’t enjoy it either but I didn’t want to simply trash the act. I think the problem I have with enjoying this sketch and these comedians is that they don’t push it far enough. The maximum level of discomfort and awkwardness is set in the first minute where the premise of the characters is set – two grown men losers who should be peers are in a son-father relationship instead. And that’s where it stays. The intensity doesn’t increase. It just plateaus for the next hour (I know the sketch was shorter than an hour but it felt like an hour) and you have to suffer through the obvious exhaustion of the premise with absurd gags thrown in (spaghetti on pizza… kind of reminds me of the absurd scene in the movie “Gummo” where a boy is eating spaghetti in a bathtub…).
This tried very hard to be “Dumb and Dumber” and failed. It would have done better if one of the main characters played it straight.

tim and eric have carved out a niche in modern comedy that derives substantially from the strange and awkward, yet genuine and un-coreographed, detritus of public access tv and corny tv advertisements and jingles. the fact that there may be a generational disconnect with their humour probably has a lot to do with the fact that so much of the fodder that they ironically skewer is more recognizable to americans under 30, due to having grown up more submerged in media culture – think the cheesy obscure music videos that get more exposure on youtube today than they ever did in mainstream formats when they were made in the 80s – than any generation before them. I am a fan of tim and eric and see them as comically reflecting the media-saturated gestalt of the times. for instance laying the dead black boy on the squishing pizza – i just love the way they pervert the mindless sitcom stereotypes. they robin williams “gift” vignettes of the tim and eric show are also worth looking into for the same reason. however i will agree with many here that in longer formats – opposed to the short segments and premises from their tv show – the gag wears thin pretty fast.

WOW what a bunch of sour puss prunes… I’m not sorry, there are some great parts in there. I haven’t laughed that hard in a while at the awkwardness and shitty drum rolls. Yea it’s not perfect throughout, but come on, are you kidding me. Never thought I’d disagree w/ the BB crowd so much. I mean seriously, what in that video is not irreverent or awkward. THANK VARIOUS GODS that none of you dissenters are posting on here or this site would be full of posts of seen-it-a-thousand-times Monty Python clips… Thank You for the post, Xeni.

Most of Tim and Eric’s comedy comes from exaggerating those awkward, unpleasant, strange little moments that we try to ignore in day-to-day life. It’s kind of like a cross between the British Office, and watching public access television after a few hits of acid.

I loved this, even though (and really, because) it hit waaaay too close to home. Replace helicopters with Nintendo 64/Xbox and lose the mullet, and five years ago I could have been helicopter kid; I’m pretty sure I’ve had a couple of conversations from the beginning of the skit more-or-less verbatim. I think I can say, then with some authority, that Father and Son absolutely nailed the awkwardness of being an emotionally-troubled, socially maladjusted, borderline Aspergers-syndrome pre-teen trying to do their best to ignore reality, and the juxtaposition of that character with the body of a 30-something man was nothing short of genius. A brilliant, exaggerated slice-of-life, albeit a slice that most would rather throw out.

No way, completely disagree. I like both – the British version of The Office & this. They are clearly different. The rag-doll kid flying off the cliff and crunching to his death (done up w/ such cheese-factor & fake drama) is a total win – and not something you get with The Office, or the squish noises for that matter. Don’t try to break this down into some formula of funny. And for anyone that watches this and doesn’t see it as pure comedy, I feel bad for you and don’t understand how you enjoy any modern comedy – because quite honestly modern stand-up comedians go waaaaaaay beyond this, using material that is way more controversial and “hitting home”. And I’m talking very funny comics, like Patton Oswalt, Bill Hicks, Lewis Black, David Cross, etc.

Attacking a cheap rag-doll and using poor sound effects is something I expect to see on mad TV. Which can be funny, but I fail to see how these guys are doing it so much better.

Not being able to “break it down” makes this sound like a religion, and not a comedy. Which is cool, just don’t tell me I don’t get the purity and brilliance of T&E without explaining it. I may get it, and not care for it.

I read a few replies stating that watchers have ‘tried hard’ to like Tim and Eric. Why? There are many perspectives on what people consider funny. For example: I’m a nurse, and occasionally I’ll have to to keep watch on patients that have attempted suicide. On one such occasion a patient was watching Madea’s Family Renuion. Now, I would have loved to able to laugh along with this poor soul, who in the last 18 hours od’d on pain killers, but its just not my brand. T and E fans laugh at what’s normal in America: the junk food and obesity, the longing for fame and riches without talent or savvy and never realize their goals, the incompetent that find glory despite their shortcomings. Plus, they make some funny faces.

The majority of commenter here seem to be really boring people. This is the greatest thing I have seen in 2010. I keep rewatching certain parts (THE SPIT!!!) with my friends and my sister, and we always laugh so much. I love Tim and Eric and they are geniuses.

this is pure tim and eric glory. i love the longer format, the season cinco finale was 22 min and they fill up the space with so much. this is just such a great extension of what theyve been doing, dad humor, stepson humor, stepfather humor, pizzia/spaghetti humor, have all been running themes since tom goes to the mayor days, this is their bread and butter. my fav moment was when they were setting up the stage(am i good? you gotta check the audio wires) classic shit. i also love that they can swear, just adds to the absurdity.

there was always something very dark in many of their sketches, usually pretty subtle but not always.

and if you can’t appreciate absolute absurdity, then no you probably won’t find them funny. personally i think the first Spaghett! appearance is one of the funniest things i’ve ever seen. heidecker was hinting that he wanted to do a charlie rose style show but using james quall. i would love to see him interview the president of iran or something. so – you’re the iran president and spaghetti and meatballs.

and don’t compare them to dr. steve brule. they said john reilly just started doing dr. steve brule on the set just off the top of his head. one of the funniest characters in tv history. he’s obviously a genius. When I watch Magnolia again, I can see certain elements of dr steve brule in that cop character he played. “SWEETBERRY WINE!”

did you know he has his own show on adult swim called … uh… can’t remember what it’s called

“I wonder what kind of person enjoys this kind of humor- poking fun at real life awfulness and ugliness?” -Johnhazard

What kind of statement is that? If you listen to pretty much EVERY COMEDIAN in HISTORY, this is what they state comedy is all about: Making light or fun of the sad, sad state of the world. You’re right! Instead of making fun of sad things, let’s all just hold hands and cry and live terrible sad lives with no laughter.

“I think maybe it’s people who have grown up without any real ugliness in their lives who think this kind of awfulness is just pretend, just fun exaggeration, just a harmless–”

Let me stop you there.
My dad went to prison for a murder he didn’t commit. (no JOKE) The judge even admitted making a mistake, saying he deserved a retrial. But then acted like she NEVER SAID IT, even though it’s in the transcripts. Now he’s in prison, and there’s nothing we can do. No retrial. I make dad in prison jokes in my stand up routine all the time. It’s the only way to cope. And people laugh and I love it. Johnhazard, you are officialy the dunce of this comment section.

“…maybe it’s because they mix in what I feel is a big ol’ life salad: equal parts ridiculousness, ugliness, and love. At least that’s what my life keeps bringing to the table. And like a dummy I keep diggin’ in!”

^THIS. This explains my tastes and reasons for loving stuff like this PERFECTLY. I can’t thank you enough for articulating that so well, Anon! I’ve been trying to find a way to explain that very thing, and you finally did it for me.